Ambling up Beau Geste on Saturday, got a bit of a shock when we got swooped by a pair of Peregrines. Nest appears to be somewhere around the third belay, so would affect the other routes that finish up there.

Didn't get a chance to put a notice up at the toilet block, if someone could put one up that'd be appreciated.

On 25/10/2011 anthonycuskelly wrote:>Missed the one on the 10/10/2011. Beau Geste is Northern Group though,>not Mitre Rock, so there's obviously two different nests.>>We were only there for the day so parked down the other end, so not sure>whether there's a sign on the toilet block
I think Andrew is referring to the Harlequin Cracks falcon post which is in the same area as Beau Geste. Would be the same one as Peregrines are territorial and wouldn't share such a close nesting area. That sighting is noted on CliffCare and I also put a note about them on the campground noticeboard when I was there the following weekend. It notes Harlequin Cracks - people need to give that area a wide berth. They nest there regularly - I was caught out one year just as I was about to start climbing.

Yeah I had a brain fart. Both the threads I linked to mentioned the falcons around Beau Geste though one is in a thread about the ones on Mitre Rock which got my wires crossed and linked to the cliffcare post about Mitre.

I climbed Beau Geste last weekend (14th Jan), since it had been a while since it had built a nest there (I had seen the note posted in the toilet blocks last October, and the chicks would have left the nest by now). I was surprised though when I heard the falcon complaining loudly. After a few minutes I saw that it wasn't me it was complaining about; an adult falcon was trying to chase off a smaller falcon off the Watchtower faces. It completely ignored climbers.

a note to pass on some off-hand feedback from a raptor expert at work - actively avoiding nesting birds like the falcons does actually make a significant impact on their breeding success. The restriction at the red rocks crag in Canberra has apparently led to a significant increase in their abundance along the Murrumbidgee.

It has the added benefit of avoiding being attacked by one of the fastest critters on the planet...